Mushtari, from Wanderers collection

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Stratasys as part of Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.

Wanderers, An Astrobiological Exploration, created in 2014 with Stratasys, is a series of 3D-printed, wearable, synthetic organ systems. Oxman imagines seeding the pieces’ printed internal capillaries with microorganisms that could digest biological waste and hydrocarbons, enabling human survival on distant planets. According to Oxman, Mushtari has been designed to “house synthetic microorganisms that fluoresce bright colors in darkness, produce sugar, and manufacture biofilms. The wearable can change color, create food, and produce biological tissues, such as insulation for the body.” Bacteria would be hosted within the piece’s network of tiny channels. Resembling the intestinal tract, Mushtari’s clear material would expose the photosynthetic bacteria to light. Produced with “bitmap printing,” Mushtari achieves translucent gradients of color in extremely high resolution; “Like living tissue, the design object has locally varying properties, such as color, rigidity, and opacity.”

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.